Chaim Levano is a musician and theatremaker who refuses to be pigeonholed. His lifelong fascination for the historical avant-garde and the contrary consistency with which he puts it into practice make him a fitting subject for a book from Huis Clos.
A biographical sketch unfolds on the left-hand pages, while on the right we have a genuine Levano lexicon, set sideways in three columns. Using different fonts creates a difference in ‘colour’ between the two sides of a spread. Small red arrows point us from the biography to the lexicon. The section-heading initials in the lexicon are a reference to the cover. In the lexicon, small black circles with reversed out numerals refer to the enclosed DVD of a documentary about Levano (it is thanks to the DVD that the book can manage without much illustration). Two card folds and a slit are enough to keep the disc in its place – it could hardly be simpler.
The book itself comes with an open spine, giving the whole thing an air of provisionality which ties in with the editor’s calling it an ‘exploratory orientation’. The ambition to do a book about Levano took root as long ago as the nineteen-eighties – that dogged persistence alone is enough to boggle the mind…